In general, a refrigerator includes a storage room maintained at a low temperature primarily for storing perishable items, such as food, frozen food, fruits, vegetables, drinks, and etc. The low temperature environment in the storage room is provided by dissipating cold air into the storage room through a cold air duct which has a cover at its outlet to the storage room, or so-called duct cover.
Referring to FIG. 1. The refrigerator 1 has a storage room 2. Racks 3 are optionally installed in the storage room 2. A cold air duct is installed on the wall of the storage room 2, and a duct cover 10 is disposed at the outlet of the cold air duct. The duct cover 10 has holes (or openings) 11 allowing cold air to flow from the cold air duct into the storage room 2.
Stored items can be placed on the racks 3. Some stored items may be contained in a storage container, e.g., a rectangular box or a plastic bag.
Sometimes, a user may place a stored item in front of the holes 11 of the duct cover 10, which inevitably blocks the holes and thereby inhibits the cold air flow from the duct to the storage room. In such a scenario, the cold air flows through the blocked holes and unblocked holes to the storage chamber in different flow rates, undesirably causing an uneven temperature distribution inside the storage room 2.
Further, cold air can be condensed into water drops on the surface of the duct cover 10. The duct cover 10 according to the conventional art has a smooth and even surface and thus water drops can undesirably reside on the surface for extend time before detaching from the surface by gravity. More specifically, as the duct cover 10 has a large surface area, the condensed water drops adhere to the surface with relatively strong adhesive forces. Thereby it is difficult for water drops to separate from the duct cover surface. This tends to cause stains on the surface and compromises its appearance.